Samsung Says New Chromebook 225-Percent Faster Than Previous Model

Planning to upgrade from the first-gen Samsung Chromebook to the latest, 8-core version? If so, you’re in for a big jump in power according to Samsung.

The South Korean tech company says the comparative computing prowess of the Octa processor featured in its latest range of Chromebooks against the 2012 model will deliver a ‘125% increase in computing performance’ to users, with multimedia performance being 2x as good.

“Compared to Exynos 5 Dual, our new Exynos 5 Octa application processors deliver up to 125 percent increase in computing and two times the multimedia performance. This enables designers to develop leading-edge products with significantly improved battery life.”—Samsung

Being built around processors from the Exynos 5 Octa family of processors, and sporting more RAM, the Samsung Chromebook 2 will deliver a better experience than its predecessor. But how much better? That remains less clear. Benchmarks run by third-parties show only modest gains.

The 11.6-inch model features eight-cores in a big.LITTLE™ processor configuration: four powerful ARM Cortex A15 ‘big’ cores clocked at 1.9GHz and four less powerful, but power efficient Cortex A7 ‘little’ cores tuned to 1.3GHz. The 13.3-inch models feature the same processor, but with the big cores clocked at 2.0GHz, with the little side speeding along at 1.3GHz.

Cores from both sets can be used as and when needed to deliver efficient handling of multitasking and multiple processes. This means that the Octa range of Chromebooks will cope better with heavier loads, more tabs open, handle JavaScript-heavy websites with ease, and improve the responsiveness of the entire OS.

125% better? We’ll have to wait for the first batch of user reviews to see if that claim can be backed up in real world usage.

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After using the Acer 720 I would want to see the new Samsung in action before I make the switch. The 720 and the HP 14 just has great performance. The 14 just doesn’t do the resolution I want from a large screen.

mik straz

I agree.. Also if you have Ubuntu running you might not be able to get certain software to work on the arm. So keep that in mind if you are switching

Martin Jones

I agree. The HP 14 is awesome in every way apart from the screen. Viewing angle and dpi is poor.

Boothy

Totally agree with the screen comment on the HP.
1080p should be on the 14″.

Sam Hollis

Wasn’t the first model a dual core and this one a quad core? That’s a lot of it right there.

Na7noo7

Samsung doesn’t make quad core CPUs. They use qualacomm’s snapdragon. So they used Exynos Octa.

Sean Lumly

I can believe this performance claim. Not only is the process node smaller, and the cores higher clocked, there are more of them, likely making multi-tab usage far more comfortable. But this is not all: the very-well-performing ‘little’ cores should prevent the ‘BIG’ cores from being constantly on, and greatly reduce the likelihood of thermal throttling to add to lower power consumption. Lastly, there are many tasks that will simply run on the ‘little’ cores exclusively.

Then there is the software. If the linux kernel software has been well adjusted to take advantage of the octa-core, it should provide improved scheduling. Chrome has also been getting more efficient with the way that it draws web-pages and executes Javascript. This will undoubtedly improve performance across all devices.

While I don’t think that the Exynos 5420 will blow away the Exynos 5250, it has proved to be faster by a non-trivial amount, and it should *feel* much better in day-to-day usage compared to its predecessor.

Edward Ashdown

I feel like I am being dumb… but can anyone explain the 125% figure? A ‘125% increase’ is surely a 25% improvement in performance, just like 125% of 1 is 1.25?? This would explain the modest increase in the benchmarks, and the BIG.Little architecture would explain the 2x increase in media performance.

Oliver Black

125% increase is 225% performance, just like a 7% intrest doesn’t mean you only have to pay back 7& of what you borrowed but 107%

Edward Ashdown

Thanks! That also makes sense. Though that could then bring into question those low benchmarks… weird eh?

Edward Ashdown

Ok… So the titles been edited to ‘225% faster’ I have just looked it up, apparently in the context of comparison (faster), it should be cumulative (225%) but in the context of increase it should, as you say, be 125%. :) Sorted!

I really want to know the real performance. I am thinking whether i should get the HP chromebook 11 or the new samsung chromebook 11. I really like the display,speaker and keyboard on HP, as well as the usb charging.